2 CORINTHIANS 1:12

2 CORINTHIANS 1:12

FOR OUR BOASTING IS THIS: THE TESTIMONY OF OUR CONSCIENCE THAT WE CONDUCTED OURSELVES IN THE WORLD IN SIMPLICITY AND GODLY SINCERITY, NOT WITH FLESHLY WISDOM BUT BY THE GRACE OF GOD, AND MORE ABUNDANTLY TOWARD YOU.

The Lord calls us to live in the world but not of the world. He calls us to live a genuine, authentic, and straightforward life. Christians, more often than not, get such a bad wrap for being judgmental, condescending, or hypocritical. And something even more disappointing is that growing up, those types of Christians were all around me. Personally this is what turned me of to Christianity to begin with. Not God, but his “people”. I knew Him to be a loving God, but was confused as to why all I saw and was treated with hate in the church. I understand now that it is only because I was first the hateful and selfish person. I was so quick to cast blame on everyone else rather than myself. I listened to what other people had said about me and thought that was what God was saying about me, instead of actually developing my own authentic relationship with Him. Something really stood out to me when reading On Being a Servant of God by Warren W. Wiersbe last week. In chapter 4 there’s a paragraph that said, “Sometimes you feel like quitting and running away, and that’s the worst thing you can do. Resigning from your church, giving up your Sunday school class, leaving the committee, or abandoning the choir will never solve the problems or meet the needs in your heart. You’ll probably meet the same situation and same people (with different names) in the next ministry you accept. Why? Because God won’t let His servants run away.” God puts difficult circumstances in our lives to grow us not hinder us. If He brought them into our lives He will surely get us out of them. So my prayer is that I can walk in this truth He’s been so gracious to show me. To care for people and love them the way He first loved me, persistently and sincerely.